[lbo-talk] Dumb QOTD: What kind of labor produces intellectual property?

Gar Lipow gar.lipow at gmail.com
Mon Sep 5 16:10:44 PDT 2011


One thing about these conversation. Most (not all ) on this list agree the wage system is vile. Most (not all) agree the copyright system is vile.

But when wage labor is brought up, nobody (with one possible exception) suggests that people should quit their jobs and try to live on air. But when copyright comes up, all sorts of helpful suggestions are offered for people to make a living from their work while putting the copyright into public domain.

BTW, I have the impression without having time to look up data right now that the real per word rate for writing has dropped even more drastically than the real minimum wage.

Also: a helpful suggestion that might make some money for Doug that does not involve giving up copyright. Katha Pollitt has made money from a number of books that were nothing but collections of her old Nation columns. Why not either pitch to a commercial publisher or self-publish in paperback and Kindle format a collection of Doug's lbo columns. Not insignificant amount of work, but not like writing from scratch or revising. Would have to stick to Doug written columns, cause too much trouble and too big a cut of profits to pay royalties to other lbo-writers, but might do that for a future collection if this works out. Could also select from old Nation columns as well if Doug retains rights or if Nation will release them. Given what the Nation pays I would hope they only got 1st N.American serial rights, and that once published Doug has all other rights.

On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 3:54 PM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
> if you're a freelancer, you subtract 1/3 from the hourly rate to get
> the equivalent of what a salaried worker makes. that's pretty standard
> stuff among contractors and usually honored by recruiters with whom
> i've spoken.
>
> the effective rate, therefore, is $40/hr. that's about $80k per year.
> As far as I am concerned, that's a shit wage for living in NYC. YMMV.
>
> for living where I live now? It's not bad, no.
>
>> On 9/5/2011 5:22 PM, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>>
>>> IN
>>> order to clear a decent wage, let's say $60/hr as a freelancer
>>
>> $60/hr?
>>
>> Sounds great, but you do know the average wage nationwide is about
>> $23/hr?
>>
>> Maybe $42/hr if you literally divided the whole country's labor hours
>> by
>> the total hours worked.
>>
>> SA
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>
>
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